Facts of Life
by She Is The Lia
Summary: He laughs and she doesn't want it to end, just wants him to keep laughing that amazing laugh and see those dimples in his cheek and how his blue eyes shine. A Jason/Piper fic, mortal AU.


**I wrote this on a whim because I thought of a simple phrase, "He laughs and she doesn't want it to end, just wants him to keep laughing that amazing laugh" and boom, this story was born.**

 **I know I should be updating Meeting Again and I'm not gonna make excuses, I'm just gonna say I'm doing my best and reviews are always welcome, they encourage me (and every other author out there) to write faster!**

 **Take note: I tried my best to not make the characters OOC, and I may have stolen a Persassy moment… This might also be one of my few fics that do not require tissues and sniffling.**

 **This is a Jasper, or a Jason/Piper fic, cause they don't get enough love, and anybody who doesn't like Jasper can click the back button now. If you review and complain about how you don't like Jasper, that's a waste of your time cause I'm just gonna ignore you.**

 **Anyway. Ahem. Onto the story!**

* * *

 _Facts of life: (that are 100% true)_

 _He doesn't know I exist._

 _I'm in love with him._

 _I don't think he'll ever notice me._

 _He never will._

She taps her pen against the table, waiting for inspiration that never comes. Instead, she's interrupted by Percy, who peers over her shoulder and reads the facts before she can cover them, and he frowns, grabbing her pen away from her.

She lunges for it, but he darts out of her reach and points the pen at her. "You, my dear, are a ray of sunshine."

She scowls. "Percy, I want my pen back. Also, I did not come to the library just to have you reading over my shoulder all the time like how you normally do. Go bug someone else."

"Okay," Percy says, dragging each letter out just because he knows how irritated that makes her. He saunters off, waving her pen in the air and yelling, "Bye, Pipes!"

"Gah!" She slams her notebook shut and tucks it under her arm. "Come back here, Perseus Jackson! Give me back my damned pen!"

Percy starts running before she's even finished her sentence, and he ducks behind a bookshelf and sprints, never turning back. "Catch me and you'll get it back!"

She mentally groans at how childish he is before she turns left and leaps after him.

It doesn't last long.

The number of times Percy has been in the library can be counted on one hand, and Piper has been in here so many times the librarian knows her name and calls out a greeting to her each time she comes in. She knows the ins and outs and the shortcuts and each bookshelf like she knows the back of her hand, and she catches Percy almost laughably easily.

She tackles him to the ground and they laugh, her anger disappearing. He hands the pen back to her with a defeated sigh. "I let you win," he says, and she scoffs.

"Liar!" She pokes him where he's ticklish and Percy squirms, trying to get away but fails as she digs her elbows into his chest so he'll stay down.

"Okay, okay!" Percy admits defeat soon, and they get onto their feet, him giving her a helping hand.

"But, seriously," Percy says and she takes him seriously, because when Percy's eyes hold seriousness you listen. "If you really like Jason Grace, you can date him. But if he breaks your heart, he'll have me to deal with, anything else aside from your happiness will not matter. Got me?"

She feels heat rushing to her cheeks and she smiles, because no one had ever cared that much before. "Yeah," she says, smiling softly. "Thanks."

* * *

A note drops onto her desk during class and she heaves an exasperated sigh, sure that Percy had grown bored and was writing a note to annoy her again. She unfolds the note and her mind is reading it before she can register that the hand writing's too neat to be Percy's.

" _What were Percy and you doing at the library yesterday?"_

The note is signed Jason and she only knows one person with that name. She glances to her left—two desks away, Jason Grace stares back at her.

OMG.

 _Jason Grace knows she exists and cares about her!_

She averts her eyes.

It _was_ him!

She tries to stop the blood from flooding her cheeks and prays Jason doesn't see it.

Then she glances down at the paper again. Wait… Jason was at the library yesterday? That means he saw Percy and her goofing off…

Shit!

She hides her face in her hands, not able to hold back her blush anymore.

He was there…

She quickly scribbles out a response, " _We were goofing off… Why do you ask?"_

She tosses the note onto his desk and prays that's not too lame or stupid or—

Her brain stops working when he reads her note, his eyebrows furrow, and he writes something down.

The note's on her desk again and she practically shoves her pencil case onto the floor to get to it as quickly as possible.

It reads, " _No reason… Meet me at that huge tree in the nearby park after school?"_

She blushes so hard and she wants to run out of class and do a happy dance and jump for joy and run over and hug someone.

Jason Grace asked to meet her outside campus.

 _Jason. Freaking. Grace. Asked. Her. Out._

There isn't any doubt.

She scribbles yes and waits impatiently for the bell to ring.

* * *

"So, what is it?" She asks, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The girly part of her freaks out: _God that is so lame I should have said something better now he'll think I'm lame and never bother to take note of me again—_

She tells that part to shut up.

"Well, since you and Percy are best friends and when you were at the library you tackled him and the two of you seemed really close and he said something and you blushed and I just wanted to know—" He rambles and she can barely understand what he's saying and—

"Jason, say that again and say it slower."

He does, and she's confused. "What does Percy have to do with any of this?"

He flushes red, and Piper can barely register how cute he looks before he blurts out, "Are you dating Percy?" and her brain stops working.

"What?" Is all her shocked mind can make her mouth say, then outrage kicks in and she glares. "No, no, no! I am _not,_ and will _never_ , date Perseus Jackson! He's like my brother! And also I won't betray Annabeth like that."

Jason seems a little shocked, but also a little relieved, by her tirade, and she doesn't have time to wonder why before he tilts his head to the side—the girly part of her screams and swoons at how cute that is—and asks, "Who's Annabeth?"

She grins, and waves her arm about. "Annabeth is Percy's girlfriend. They've been dating since they were sixteen and Percy is absolutely head over heels for her. They're the cutest couple ever!"

Jason fake-pouts. "You don't think we're cute?"

 _What._

She gapes at him and her dumb mouth says, "Jason Grace, that ought to be the lamest way ever to ask someone out."

He grins but she can see in his eyes that he's nervous. "So, how 'bout it?"

"Are you serious?" She says, and his smile drops, but before he even opens his mouth she tackles him in a hug, shrieking, "Yes yes yes, you idiot! Yes!"

He laughs and she doesn't want it to end, just wants him to keep laughing that amazing laugh and see those dimples in his cheek and how his blue eyes shine.

She laughs along with him, and it sounds like the best kind of Elysium there is, their laughter mixing and echoing and rising up into the sky.

When they stop laughing, they grin at each other and she slips her hand into his without thinking. She freezes and she can feel the heat on her cheeks.

Jason leans back, closes his eyes, and tightens his grip on her hand.

It's the best feeling in the world.

(So maybe her facts aren't one hundred percent true… This time, she doesn't mind at all.)


End file.
